English

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers." Charles William Eliot

Why study English? Where would we be without it? For most of us, the English language permeates almost every moment of our waking lives. It infuses our day from the moment we awake through the serious tones of the news, the lyrics and poetry of popular music and the lively, upbeat chatter of Radio 1 and Channel 103.

We are surrounded by English. It is a living creation which changes by the day. We need to understand its nuances every time we communicate. In English, we learn how to filter; how to listen for the rhythms, the points, the views and the bias. We learn what distinguishes one form from another so that we can adapt our speech and writing to be appropriate in format and engaging in content. We learn to understand the power that our living language has to change our world and how it already has. We learn to be accurate and precise because it matters and if we value what we have to say, we must also value the accuracy and precision with which we say it. We understand the importance of high-quality, accurate expression if we want to be taken seriously and our views to be heard.

Through the poetry of love to declarations of war, we learn the subtleties and savagery of our literary cultural heritage. We learn to critique literature with a clear appreciation of the time in which it was written and the views of those who wrote it. We use these insights to discern how things have changed and how things and people can change. Most importantly, literature opens a window of opportunity, it inspires who we might want to be and how we might live.

That's why we study English at Haute Vallee. It has the potential to teach us how we want to live and gives us the skills to make it happen.